Minor campaigns of 1815

On 1 March 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from his imprisonment on the isle of Elba and launched a bid to recover his empire. A confederation of European powers pledged to stop him. During the period known as the Hundred Days, Napoleon chose to confront the armies of Prince Blücher and the Duke of Wellington in what has become known as the Waterloo Campaign. He was decisively defeated by the two allied armies at the Battle of Waterloo; they subsequently marched on Paris, forcing Napoleon to abdicate for the second time. However, Russia, Austria, and some of the minor German states also fielded armies against him, and all of them invaded France. Of these other armies, those engaged in the largest campaigns and seeing the most fighting were two Austrian armies: the Army of the Upper Rhine and the Army of Italy.

The Battle of Waterloo, followed by the advance of Blücher and Wellington's armies upon Paris, was decisive. The primary objective of the war—the destruction of Napoleon's power and the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty under King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815—was achieved while the Armies of the Upper Rhine and of Italy were just beginning their invasion of French territory. Had the efforts of Blücher and Wellington been less decisive, or had they suffered reverses, the operations of the armies advancing from the Rhine and across the Alps would have taken on immense importance. However, the rapid success in northern France reduced the interest in military operations elsewhere. The operations of the Coalition armies invading France's eastern and southeastern frontiers demonstrate that the decisive victory at Waterloo and the speedy capture of Paris averted a more general and protracted war on these frontiers. A different result in Belgium might have emboldened the French to mount a stronger defence in these regions.